The History Factory Blog

ESTABLISHING SHOT of an outdoor sidewalk café near Foggy Bottom. EXT. CAFÉ – WASHINGTON, D.C.Intrepid Idea Engineer Christian has coffee with a management consultant friend. In Washington, it’s often humid. And the humidity isn’t just a climatological phenomenon; it’s a character in the town’s ongoing drama. In fact, it’s a character named Shirley. CHRISTIAN Wow….

In the wake of this week’s GM bankruptcy, the media is generating a lot of biographical sketches of impacted employees, dealers, communities, and customers. On that note, I’d like to do a “shout out” to those creative folks who contributed to our collective memory such classic mind-candy as “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet,”…

Despite the occasional, hysterical headline about the death of the book as we know it—usually with a reference to the runaway success of Amazon.com’s Kindle digital book display—there has never been a better time to leverage your organization’s heritage in the form of a book. Self-serving? Of course. For you as well as for me….

When researching company histories, we often juxtapose the decisions, products, and values a company made in the past with those it puts forth today. We’re looking for connections between past and present, a clear line of sight from the foundations on which the company was built to the choices it currently makes. In this exercise,…

I didn’t think anyone could top Michael Lewis’s The End” in the December 2008 issue of Portfolio for dramatic coverage of the financial crisis, until I read Nick Paumgarten’s “The Death of Kings—Notes From a Meltdown“ in the May 18, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. It’s the difference between reportage and history. Paumgarten’s effort…

This week marks my 10th anniversary at The History Factory. Ten years is a long time to stay at one place, especially since it seems that today’s young professionals are likely to have several different careers over a 30-year span, let alone work for multiple companies in the same industry. I’ve been fortunate enough…

Companies struggling for brand recognition might look enviously at Muzak, whose pithy name is instantly recognizable across America as the company responsible for the generic-sounding music heard in office buildings and waiting rooms. The problem—as NPR reports—is that Muzak has been trying to rebrand itself. But its 75-year-old history keeps getting in the way. Elevator…

ESTABLISHING SHOT: streets of Washington DC. Hazy late afternoon. A flurry of police lights flash by, switching from red to blue faster than Arlen Specter. PAN UP to high above Connecticut Avenue and move THROUGH the windows of an office tower into INT. THE OFFICES OF THE HISTORY FACTORY – DAY A small and dedicated…

What is history’s return on investment? We get asked that question regularly—especially during economic downturns. Why should a company or organization invest in heritage management when it is feeling pressure to cut costs at every turn? Where, and when, is the payback? The main road north out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, following the Red Sea…